Simon Kean of Canada (R) reacts after he defeated France's Tony Yoka fight in their Men's Super Heavy (+91kg) Round of 16 boxing match at the London 2012 Olympic Games August 1, 2012. (MURAD SEZER/REUTERS)

Simon Kean of Canada (R) reacts after he defeated France's Tony Yoka fight in their Men's Super Heavy (+91kg) Round of 16 boxing match at the London 2012 Olympic Games August 1, 2012.(MURAD SEZER/REUTERS)

London 2012

Simon Kean rallies for victory to give Canada its second London 2012 boxing win
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Dripping in sweat as if just doused with a bucket
of water, Canada’s Simon Kean walked out of the Olympic boxing arena Wednesday
pushed to his max, but with a victory in hand

Canada got its second boxing victory of the London
Games as Kean of Trois
Rivieres, Que. overcame a first-round deficit to
beat Tony Yoka of France in a fight so close it
went into count-backs, and Kean was declared the winner in his Olympic debut.

IN pictures

The 23-year-old super heavyweight had to fight
back from a 3-6 hole in the first-round. As the 6-foot-5, 243-pound Canadian
and the 6-foot-6 231-pound Frenchman squared off, Yoko was dominating, at one
point knocking Kean’s mouth guard clear across the ring in their 91+ kilogram
division contest.

Then Kean landed a flurry of punches in the second
round as if a totally different fighter -- much to the delight of the
boisterous Olympic fans. He pulled ahead 10-9.

In the third, Kean sustained the aggressive
fighting and the two tied at 16-16. The judges then went back to count every single
punch that each boxer threw, and determined Kean had tossed more bombs, so he
got to advance.

“I’m so very happy, it’s been a long time my dream
to fight in the Olympics and I have a victory,” said Kean. “I think I am more
tired than the other guy right now.”

Kean’s next fight will be Kazahstan’s Ivan Dychko.

“Everyone back home at my uncle’s house must have
been jumping and cheering for me, they will be very proud,” said Kean.

It was a night with a couple of strange moments
for the Olympic boxing tournament on Wednesday. First, Japanese boxer Satoshi
Shimizu publicly ripped the judges for what he called an unfair loss to
Azerbaijan’s Magomed Abdulhamidov in the 56-kilogram weight class. The scoring
is not displayed until the end of each round, so the declaration of the winner
often catches the fighters and crowd by surprise, and that was often the case
Wednesday night. Some questioned a handful of disqualifications, while one
boxer was punted from the competition for failing to show up for his weigh in,
Angolan boxer Tumba Silva.

Next up for the Canadian
Boxing team at the Olympics is Custio
Clayton of Dartmouth, N.S., who upset
Mexico’s Oscar Molina Casillas on Sunday. He gets
his second match on Friday versus Australian Cameron Hammond. On the women’s side, three-time world champion Mary Spencer
opens her Olympic tournament on Sunday when she fights the winner of a bout
between Chinese boxer Li Jinzi and Brazil’s Roseli Feitosa.

Canada’s last Olympic boxing gold medalist, Lennox
Lewis who won at the 1996 Barcelona Olympics, spoke at the boxing venue on
Wednesday, on hand for his broadcasting duties with BBC. He had two concerns
about the tournament.

“What
has impressed me is the amount of talent that's been brought together,” began
Lewis. “What I am concerned about is probably the judging. You never know who
is going to win until the end of the fight."

He suggested some changes he would like to
see to amateur boxing.

"I
would probably take away the head gear and change the judging system,” said the
retired boxer and world heavyweight champ. “Get some judges that score all year
round."